Dr Akin Ogunbiyi, the Chairman of Mutual Benefits Group is not happy with the situation of things in his home state, Osun. And he is not keeping it to himself. He is ready to do something about it. At every opportunity, he has always made it known that the people of Osun can be better managed and taken out of Poverty.
He told City People this last Friday when we met him in Lagos. He is one of the aspirants vying for the governorship seat in the state. After retiring from Mutual Benefits a few years ago when he was in his 50’s, he went into farming and he is right now, a big and successful farmer, with sprawling farms across the South West. He will be 60 this year. He is eager to make a point that he can run Osun State far better than the incumbent, Gov. Oyetola. He has a lot to back his claim. He is an innovative leader and well-grounded scholar who identifies opportunities and creates great and highly beneficial values from them through entrepreneurship.
Akinade Ogunbiyi, with a PhD in Insurance and Risk Management, has accumulated over the years, unique skills and capabilities through his insatiable search for knowledge. He graduated in 1986 with a Second Class Upper division in Agricultural Economics from the University of Ife, Nigeria (now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife). He has an Executive Master’s Degree from the University of Nevarra, Barcelona, Spain; Global Executive Leadership Certificate from Yale School of Management; Certified High Potential Leader Education from Harvard Business School and a Graduate Advanced Management Leadership Course from Said Business School, University of Oxford.
His career development in Insurance started during his undergraduate studies when he ventured into Agricultural Insurance as his choice of specialization. Soon after graduation, Dr. Ogunbiyi was employed in 1988 by the National Insurance Corporation of Nigeria (NICON PLC) as a Research & Planning Officer. He worked in various strategic capacities within the Corporation, including the training of chief executives of Insurance Companies from sister African countries.
In his entrepreneurial pursuits, he has taken quite some risks. He gave up an impressive and promising career at NICON to go into Insurance Consultancy– a business hitherto unexplored and without a precedent of success in Nigeria.
Ogunbiyi was the pioneer Chief Executive of Finance & Insurance Expert Limited, a firm of Finance, Insurance, Environmental and Management Consultants as Managing Partner/Chief Executive Officer in 1992.
A resilient business manager, he has continued to create wealth for the Nation through the establishment of many viable and well-managed businesses. He is currently the Group Chairman of Mutual Benefits Group- a conglomerate with 9 subsidiaries and over 5,000 employees, who are gainfully employed in various value-adding sectors of the Nigerian and other nations economies. Akin is the Chairman of the USIG, a real estate investment firm and Charles Enterprises LLC; both in the USA, and CIL (Inc) UK.
He is a philanthropist and technocrat. He has promoted the establishment of a private University under the Arubiewe Educational Foundation, which has supported over a hundred scholarship awards and sponsorship of students in secondary, tertiary, and professional education.
Of these awards, there were 10 graduates of the West Africa College of Insurance, Banjul, Gambia; 15 graduates from Chartered Institutes of Insurance and Management, Lagos, Nigeria; a postgraduate studies leading to the award of PhD in Architecture from the University of Leeds, the United Kingdom among others. The Foundation which provides Awards and sponsorship of students on yearly basis has currently 15 pupils who just finished their Primary School in Adeleke College, Ede, 5 undergraduate students in private university and several others in diploma and professional education.
He sits on the boards of many companies, both in Nigeria and other countries. He founded and nurtured Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc, a Nigerian company into an enhanced private-sector initiative with full-fledged affiliate companies in the Niger Republic and Liberia.
He Integrated and successfully transformed the coordinated business units into highly profitable business ventures in Insurance, Oil and Gas, Agriculture, Transportation logistics, Real Estate, Banking, and Mining. He pioneered grass-root insurance with its tailor-made offerings as a catalyst for revenue gains, growth and expansion in the economies of catchment countries.
He is the Chief Promoter/Founder/Chairman of Mutual Benefits Group, a Conglomerate with many subsidiaries in a various real sector of the Nigerian and African economies. He worked as Managing Director/CEO for 15 years, Group Managing Director for more than 5 years and is presently the Group Chairman of the Board.
He was the Chief Promoter/Founding Managing Director and Chief Executive of VTL Insurance Brokers Ltd from January 1993 to September 1995. It was the experience he gathered from here that prompted him to go ahead and found MUTUAL Benefits Assurance Plc. which commenced operations on 2nd October 1995.
From January 1992 to December of the same year, he held the position of Managing Partner/Chief Executive of Finance & Insurance Experts Limited.
He also worked in the National Insurance Corporation of Nigeria (NICON) from 1988 to 1991 and held the positions of the Research and Planning Officer as well as Head of the Economic and Business Development Unit at different times.
As a fresh graduate, he started his career at Askars Insurance Brokers, Ikeja, Lagos where he worked from 1987 to 1988. For his National Youth Service Corps in 1986, he served at Promoserve Limited in Surulere, Lagos. As an astute believer in continuous self-development, he has attended many courses and seminars like:
•Global Executive Leadership Program, Yale School of Management, University of Yale, June 2016 to September 2017
•The Oxford Advanced Management and Leadership Programme, Said Business School, University of Oxford, October 2011;
•High Potential Leadership Program, Harvard Business School, 2008
•Entrepreneurship Program and Operational Strategy and Competition, Lagos Business School (LBS); 1998
•Venture Capital Financing and Management, International Graduate School of Management (IESE), Barcelona, Spain, 1998
•Insurance Management Development Course, Lagos Business School, June 1996 and many more courses.
He has received many Awards/Honours like the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Insurance (honoris causa) by the Senate, Governing Council and the Board of trustees of Joseph Ayo Babalola University, Osun State.
•Professional Innovator Award (Merit Award), in recognition of his service to the Insurance Industry in Nigeria from the Professional Insurance Ladies Association.
•Lifetime achievement award for entrepreneurship 2017, Black Heritage Magazine
•Insurance Icon 2017 Award. Association of Online Publishers
•Odua Business Ambassador Award 2017. Oba Awards Program
•Benson Idahosa University’s special recognition on contribution to Nation Building, in the areas of Entrepreneurship and Job Creation, 2015
•Recognition Award from Business Journal, 2014
•Recognition Award from Yaba College of Education, as Chairman Valedictory Ceremony, 2013
•Excellence award for outstanding support to the Nigeria Police at the 1st Nigeria Police Sports Award, 2014
•Award of Honour from African Church, 2012
•Commander, Great Ife, CGI.
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